Saturday, May 8, 2010

Saturday morning with Korean green

Today, I decided to spend my morning with this unspecified Nokcha from 2009 harvest I've got as a gift some time ago.

Formerly, I used to prepare this tea in Gaiwan and drink it from small Gong-fu cha cups, but I later found out that I prefer using my little kyusu - it somehow moves this tea to another dimension, making the pear-like taste and smell in first two infusions even more vivid.

This cup was made by Czech potter Karel Žíla. There is a small spiral-like pattern on it's bottom. I really enjoy using it, especially for fresh green teas.

After the fifth infusion, the tea started to loose it's smell and taste very quickly and I knew it's the end of my small morning session. I tossed the leaves out of the pot, unfolded them on the tray.

And ate some, because I always do, if I enjoyed the tea in it's infusions.

6 comments:

You ate some? Hmm, I guess that would actually be a pretty good idea. Tea is very beneficial for you, especially if you are to ingest the entire leaf (e.g. matcha). Maybe I should do this in my next tea session.

I really recommend you trying it - not just because of the health benefits, but for me, it's like getting all I can from the tea, so I can enjoy it to its fullest :)But I don't recommend you trying it with most oolongs, as their leaves are often quite bitter after being infused - most suitable are mild green teas like this one or Chinese spring teas.Japanese also have some kind of tradition connected with the preparation of Gyokuro, the finest Japanese tea - they make only one infusion of it, although the tea is able to produce about three or four - and then, they mix the leaves with soy sauce and grated fish and eat it as a salad. Never tried it personally, though.

Comment a bit late, sorry. hahaAnother thing I have seen done with gyokuro is putting some leaves on top of a fresh slice of cherry tomato, drizzled with olive oil.That might be a nice appetizer or something!

Sounds interesting, too!But I still prefer eating just the bare leaves - in my opinion, they have much to offer by themselves. And this specially applies to Gyokuro, taste of which is so sweet and complex that eating its leaves after the last infusion was made, while they are still warm - is indeed a wonderful experience.

I have yet to try any Korean tea...do you have any recommendations for a place I could buy or order Korean green tea here in the U.S.? I have added thousands of teas to RateTea.net and still have not yet stumbled upon a single Korean tea.

Alex,try http://daotea.mybigcommerce.com Unfortunately, it's the only American shop selling good Korean tea I know. Their offering is quite small, but from what I know, their teas are of really high quality (or at least those Korean, I don't know anything about their puerh.)

About Me

Necessary to say, I'm not a native English speaker (as you have probably already figured out from my entries), so please forgive me my mistakes and limited use of language. Other than that, I am an eternal student deeply appreciating good tea and all joys connected to it. Among my other interests is poetry – apart from reading, I also try to do my best in writing it. Then goes film, which is a big passion of mine as well as my field of study. Naturally, I would like to continue and deepen these interests in the future.